There are quite a few things that eating chocolate and strawberries can do for your health (besides making you happy that you’re eating delicious chocolate and strawberries!). Here are just a few of the amazing medicinal properties of our two favorite foods.
Dark Chocolate
- Eating dark chocolate lowers blood pressure because of their plant phenols - naturally occurring chemical compounds found in many foods.
- Dark chocolate is a natural antioxidant, which reduce free radicals - destructive molecules implicated in heart disease and other ailments. Unfortunately milk will block this (and milk chocolate is not an antioxidant).
Strawberries
- Put strawberries in a cloth and hold it against the skin (as a compress) for rashes.
- Mash them up and use as a mask for oily skin and pimples.
- Make strawberry leaf infusions to help with heartburn.
- Crushed strawberry leaves can be applied to the skin to help avoid wrinkles.
- A strawberry root and leaf infusion can relieve arthritis.
- Strawberries also contain antioxidants, which may keep cancer cells from multiplying.
- Additional chemicals in strawberries may slow down the aging of the nervous system. Researchers are studying whether the strawberry might help prevent or treat Alzheimer’s disease and diseases that involve progressive loss of nerve function.
So keep eating that chocolate and strawberries because it's good for your health! (And also because they're delicious.)
